Sherlock Holmes Heads Into Reshoots

I’ve gotten to the point that I’m not paying much attention to reports of movies going into reshoots. A couple of weeks ago there was an uproar about reshoots on X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which, it turned out, were just to make up for shots that couldn’t be made before, at least according to the “official story.” It looks like we’ve got a similar situation going on now with Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, with both a scandalous report on the reshoots and an official studio response within a very brief time.

The original report comes from The Sun… reason enough to doubt some of its legitimacy. The tabloid reported that “Guy Ritchie was fuming” after being ordered by the studio to reshoot several weeks worth of material, requiring the director to call back his stars and make the movie more realistic. The article attributes problems with the production to Ritchie’s recent divorce from Madonna - again, a very scandal-driven approach to reporting the news.

Not surprisingly, Warner Brothers has responded to the allegations through a more trusted source, as reported by Hollywood Reporter. The studio claims the reshoots have always been on the schedule, and there’s not been any reaction to the film being “ridiculously unrealistic” because nobody has seen an actual cut of the picture yet, but that the footage seen so far has been pleasing to both Ritchie and the studio.

Normally I’m the kind of person to doubt some of these official studio press stances, but it is early on in the process for Sherlock Holmes and the initial report isn’t exactly coming from the most reliable source. It sounds like production is still under way on the movie and it’s too early for anyone, including the studio, to formulate an opinion.